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ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
42
INLET
+-
OUTLET
......
43
CONDENSATE
TANK
INLET
.......
OUTLET
......
....______
...
__........
__
OUTLET
PUMP
,..----tPRV
INLET
.......
AMBIENT
CONDENSER
INLET
+- --r-+r---'
OUTLET
PUMP
HEATER
PRV
PRV'JEa-----1
CONDENSATE
TANK
OU TLET
._
........
.._
.
.... __....__
OUTLET
PUMP
VACUUM PUMP
(ROTARY PISTON)
SOLENOID
VALVE
OUTLET
PUMP
44
AMBIENT
CONDENSER
INLET
-+-
REMOVING GASES BY
VACUUM DISTILLATION METHODS
Sour seal oil contaminated with C1 to C12 hydrocarbons, hy
drogen, H2S, and HCl can be very effectively degassed by vac
uum methods that are an inherent feature of vacuum purifica
tion units. As illustrated earlier, oil entering the system is
brought to optimum temperature and reduced in viscosity to
promote thin-film flow across the fibrous media contained in the
dispersion cartridge or, for reduced maintenance, over slanted
baflles or trays. As the thin film of oil flows through the vessel,
water, light hydrocarbons and other volatile contaminants are
thus distilled, removed by the vacuum equipment and recon
densed for disposal. The filtered, degassed and dehydrated oil
is then returned to the lubrication or seal oil system via the dis
charge pump.
Just how weli vacuum purification units will degas the oil de
pends on the vessel design, temperature, condensing efficiency
and the degree of vacuum maintained in the vessel. Test and
analysis data from the refinery, the chemical plant and from
capable vendors show that units which effectively raise the tem
perature of the oil, create a sufficient vacuum, condense vapors
at relatively cold temperatures and extend the surface area with
out promoting oil carryover \1\.'ill satisfactorily reclaim severely
contaminated seal oil. In one test, a 19 liter (five gallon) sample
of ISO Grade 43 lube oil containing 75 wppm of H2S and two
percent light hydrocarbons was processed, in a single pass,
through a vacuum purifier unit operating at 26.92 in Hg (76. 2
mm Hg). The reclaimed oil was analyzed and its residual H2S
concentration conservatively estimated at 0. 03 wppm (the vapor
in the sample bottle contained seven mppm of H2S). The
amount of light hydrocarbons was reduced to 0. 25 percent in the
same purification step. A second sample processed through a
vacuum purifier unit operating at approximately 29.8 in Hg (3
mm Hg) was degassed even more effectively, with the vapor con
taining a residual H2S concentration of two mppm. Again, the
amount of light hydrocarbons was reduced from two percent to
0.25 percent in one vacuum purification stage.
The refinery also reports interesting results. Here, the exist
ing units are designed to operate with a vacuum of28 in Hg (48.8
45
--+--
210
45.6
38.8
180
32.0
150
120
25.3
>
90
18.2
60
10.5
>
20
30
--
457-J sour
Oil Composition
J-1 Sour
Oil Composition
412-J Sour
Oil Composition
CJ
o.o
o.o
0,13
c4
l. 78
0.28
0.67
c5
22.20
3.39
2.55
c6
26.49
5.60
10.46
c7
10.73
4.90
3.78
c8
4.61
0,13
9.76
C9
0.24
0.01
l. 48
c1o
0.01
0,01
0.67
3 3.9 4
85.68
70.50
c11+
Final
Change
c3
0.13
0.0
0.13
C4
0.67
0.0
0.67
c5
2.55
o.o
c6
10.46
.rype
0.14
2.55
10.32
c7
3. 78
0.16
3.62
c8
9,76
2.73
7.03
Cg
1. 48
0.83
0,65
c1o
0.67
0.41
0.26
Weight %
cs
0.02
c6
5. 23
c7
11.91
ca
7 2. 23
Cg
9. 53
c1o
1. 68
ell+
0.02
46
::E
150
170
[)?.
0..
0..
32.0
,.
ill
:;1
ffi
...J
NEW OIL
140
0
!!;
29.6
130
27.5!:!!
cl.. 120
25.3
>
!<w
u
,..
;:;
23.0
iii 110
0
>
v.:
'
'
1-'
z
"'
1z
0
u
"'
"'
1"
70
eo
k%
...J
"
!!;
f::::
f/
00
40
1:'::
f::":
lZ
:;:
>
20.6
100
0
30
10
211.5
20
29.1
30
28.7
AO
28.3
50
27.11
60
:!7.8
70
27.2
MM I IN
4
NUMBER OF PASSES
80
28.8
90
26.4
100
28
110
25.8
120
25.2
130
2-4.8
140
24.4
1!50
24
HG
and
Q
iw
:l,
W
=
X 5
ln
50.
w
:
3000
300
1000
40
10 In 25
32 Hours
VACUUM DISTILLATION METHODS FOR LUBE OILS INCREASE TURBO MACHINERY RELIABILITY
indicate that these tests alone are not sufficient for early deter
mination, if oxidation has progressed to an undesirable degree
[9]. Lube oil oxidation can result from prolonged exposure to at
mospheric oxygen, high bearing and reservoir temperatures, or
possibly even excessive heating during processing in vacuum oil
purifiers with incorrect temperature settings.
The chemical plant opted for an analysis program which
checks for appearance, water, flash point, viscosity, total acid
number, and additive content. These tests are further described
in the literature [10, 11].
PURIFICATION AND ANALYSIS:
LONG TERM RESULTS
During the first full year of the onstream lube oil purification
and analysis program, the chemical plant was primarily in
terested in establishing the "before vs after" results of analyses
for dissolved water and oxidation inhibitor. The water check
would demonstrate acceptable overall operation of the two vac
uum oil purifiers, checking the oxidation inhibitor content
would tell us if the lube oil had aged, or if, perhaps, the applica
tion of heat and vacuum in the unit had caused the phenolic oxi
dation inhibitor constituent to be removed from the lube oil.
Four turbine driven boiler fan lube oil systems were found to
be typical of the water contamination analysis results. Each of
these 2006 liter (530 gallon) reservoirs was purified during 12hour shifts and showed "before vs after" water contents of 317/
135, 138/11, 324/47, and 351162 wppm, respectively. The reser
voir with the 135 wppm residual water content was given another
12-hour purification treatment and all four subsequently ear
marked for 18-hour conditioner hookups in the future.
Analyses for depletion of the phenolic oxidation inhibitor
were made in similar "before vs after" fashion on all of the 36
lube oil reservoirs at the chemical plant and also by simultane
ously withdrawing an oil sample from both inlet and outlet con
nections on the vacuum oil purifier. There were no significant
differences in the levels of inhibitor concentrations in the sam
ple streams. Also, no significant differences were found in the
inlet vs. outlet samples when the vacuum oil purifier processing
temperature was experimentally raised to 93C (approximately
200F). In fact, the oxidation inhibitor concentration level has
never dropped below the minimum acceptable level of 0.2 per-
47
cent in any of the 36 lube oil reservoirs during almost nine years
of operation! It can certainly be concluded that vacuum oil
purification at the processing conditions given above does not
result in the removal of desirable additives, at least not from tur
bine lube oils marketed by major lube oil refineries. No effort
was made to define which academic values of temperature and
vacuum would cause concern, but users who theorize that their
oil additives may be highly volatile could perform a series of
mass transfer calculations to establish "safe" vacuum oil purifier
operating conditions.
At the chemical plant, oil leakage from compressor shaft seals
is returned directly to the reservoirs. The authors are aware
however, of many user locations such as refineries and gas com
pression facilities onshore and offshore which collect large quan
tities of seal oil directly from the traps. These oils are then batch
processed through vacuum oil purifiers at the same operating
levels of vacuum and temperature as at the chemical plant with
excellent results. One such skid mounted unit incorporating
three 2,500 liter (660 gallon) batch process tanks and three vac
uum oil purifiers is shown in Figure 13.
The chemical plant examined the restoration of flash point by
comparing "before vs after" analyses with, values expressed in
degrees Fahrenheit: 405/412, 412/426, 397/419, and 415/423. As
expected, vacuum oil purification had resulted in the removal
of light hydrocarbons. Very similar results can be reported for
seal oil systems with oil charges that had occasionally been ex
posed to contact with H2S containing gas streams. In three years
of observation by one of the writers, the oils continued to show
flash point values around 210C (410F). In all of these cases, the
accompanying change in lubricant viscosity was marginal and
appeared to be within the anticipated error band for the kinema
tic viscosimeter which was used in this lube oil analysis.
Finally, the chemical plant was observing very minor upward
changes in total acid number for oils after conditioning. How
ever, all of the 36 reservoirs remained well within the specified
allowable maximum TAN of 0.3 KOH mglgm of oil during the
entire nine year period from 1978 until 1988. In fact, the chem
ical plant is still using the original 83,500 liters (22,000 gallons)
of lube oil which were loaded into the reservoirs when the facil
ity was commissioned in 1978. The plant intends to have the
same oil in place during the next decade.
Figure 13. Batch Process Type Sour Seal Oil Reclaimer Package (Courtesy Allen Filters).
48
$ 76,000
6,000
60,000
(68,000)
20,000
36,000
$130,000
Avoided Costs-Method I
(frequent changes prevent machinery downtime)
Four complete oil changes, 4 X 22,000@ $2.49/gal $219,000
Two non-turnaround, scheduled, major turbotrain shutdowns for the purpose of changing
300,000
lube/seal oil
Labor and disposal costs, 36 reservoirs,
4 exhange events @ $900 each
130,000
Nine-Year Avoided Cost Total: $649,000
Avoided Cost-Method II
(infrequent changes cause some machinery downtime)
Two complete oil changes, performed during
plant turnaround 2 X 22,000 gal@ $2.49/gal
$110,000
Labor and disposal costs, 36 reservoirs,
2 exchange events@$900 each
65,000
One turbotrain outage and repair event in 9 years
500,000
(One event per 45 train-years)
Nine-Year Avoided Cost Total: $675,000
VACUUr..I DISTILLATION METHODS FOR LUBE OILS INCREASE TURBO MACHINERY RELIABILITY
49
50